taipeiflyer

all i can say is FINALLY! hopefully it reigns in those who have been taking advantage of the system. 25 BRGs only in one year only serves to disadvantage everyone, as IHG will realize how much money they are losing and completely revamp the system. Good on IHG!

azepine00

No its not like this at all.

htb

Actually it is. I don't see this style of arguing leading anywhere, though. The sun revolves around the earth and the earth is flat.

HTB.

htb

Wrong. He earned most points through a credit card signup and only a few to BRG mistakes.

HTB.

dgwright99

If the OP followed the rules, and they took away only things that he had earned legitimately then I would advise suing in small claims court. It's minimal hassle to do, and a lot of hassle for them to deal with - and most likely they will make a settlement offer to avoid the hassle and expense of dealing with it.

nicolas75

The BRG has been introduced for marketing reasons (convince clients to book on ihg, with higher margins for the group and better understanding of customers choices) and to monitor the pricing policy (important for a franchise group).

Still, it is obvious that OP has played with the limits of the system. It is therefore not so suprising that ihg does want to lose money with him/her (by the way, I always find pathetic that kind of behaviour: if you can't/do not want to spend money, don't book a hotel).

dmw144

I know it is probably an unpopular sentiment on here, but i genuinely think he got what he deserved - he didn't go in with a good faith intention to purchase a hotel room for the night - he went in with the intent of getting free nights

scubaccr

Well 25 free nights at somewhere in range $100-300 means a saving of somewhere between $2500-7500.

Value of confiscated 100K points is (based on points+cash 10k=$70) nominally $700, although free points from C/card + BRG Stays where Op had to pay upfront.

all in all that is a saving to Op of $1800 - 6700, so I don't feel sorry for the OP, as he had a very good run, and was never interested in giving IHG any paid business.

I also suspect the 1x Paid night mentioned was a failed BRG attempt by Op?

If too many OPs do exactly this stay pattern, BRGs only, no paid nights unless a failed BRG attempt, then IHG would need to reduce or limit claims allowed.
Maybe IHG should anyway, set a reasonable number of BRG's per calendar (or rolling 12month) year , say 18 BRG nights. I think 3-4 BRG t+c revisions ago, there was some yearly limit? Then the more frequent single night BRG'ers would know where they stood.

midnight

I agree with your view.

This guy ran a mini business operation intent on bagging as many free nights as possible.

The shutters came down and not too soon in my opinion.

NickB

As does pretty much every single person who applies for the BRG. Given that, in common with virtually all rate guarantees programmes, the BRG asks you to make your claim within 24 hours of booking, you already have to know that there is a better competing rate at the time you make the booking. The odds of somebody booking a room and then coming across haphazardly for a cheaper rate elsewhere within 24 hrs are extremely remote.

In effect, a "best rate guarantee" programme is an (implicit or explicit) advertising claim that the cheapest rates are virtually always on the hotel's chain's own proprietary distribution channels rather than those of third parties and the BRG is a mechanism to give some credence to the claim. If an individual routinely invokes the BRG successfully, the individual shows the claim to be a sham.

Often1

So, if he "earned" them, they are income and he's reporting the fair market value of those points as income?

Can't have it both ways. Either freebies are an asset in which case they are income when earned or they aren't an asset and there's no tax consequence.

Shanye2233

Has the OP received all the funds back from the Brg's that were AP ? If not I wonder if they are still going to pay him out

jms_uk

Got stung by this about a week ago

iflyjetz

^ That would be my course of action. While some may say that the OP abused the BRG, it was set up by IHG and as long as he followed all of the T&C in place at the time, there's no justification for IHG's actions. It sounds like IHG changed the rules recently to tighten up the program.

Notahappycamper, this thread outlines my suing of BMW in small claims court. My car was under warranty when the battery died. They charged me $384 to replace the battery, saying that my 'driving profile' (driving too many short trips) caused the battery to die.
I followed all of the steps to sue them in small claims court, suing them for $784 and they settled out of court. It's easy to sue in small claims court and IHG will almost certainly settle rather than go through the legal expenses. http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=446367

kipper

I don't take it as the OP was fired as a customer, just that they were fired as a loyalty customer. I doubt that if the OP booked a room for $150 as a non-member, that they'd cancel the reservation.